The present invention relates to an improvement in a spinning reel used for fishing in which a front flange member of a spool is separately formed from a spool and the front flange member is fixed in front of the spool by means of a fixing member.
A technique is known by which a flange in front of a spool in a spinning reel used for fishing is separately formed of material having high hardness and low frictional characteristic in a ring (shape to thereby keep the flange away from being abrased by a fishing line), and by which a resistance in releasing a fishing line is reduced. The technique is disclosed, for instance, by Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 4-80363, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 5-39272, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-67507. A body portion around which a fishing line is wound, disclosed in those publications, has a relatively deep bottom surface. A flange which is a separate unit from the body portion is mounted and fixed on a location outside and in front of a spool. When a fishing line is wound around the body portion, a connecting portion of the separately formed flange and the body portion is buried below a fishing line, and thus the separately formed flange is fixed with relatively smaller deformation until a wound fishing line gets short.
These days, in order to enhance releasing performance of a fishing line, there is proposed a spool having a front flange member and a fishing line winding body portion integral with the front flange member, which is constructed such that the fishing line winding body portion is displaced radially outwardly of an axis of a spool to thereby form a relatively shallow groove, and that a height of the front flange member is reduced to thereby reduce an angle at which the fishing line contacts with the front flange member, whereby a fishing line releasing resistance is reduced.
However, if a structure of securing the above mentioned front flange member is merely applied to a spool having a shallow spool, a connection of the separately formed flange and the fishing line winding body portion is disposed closer to an outer surface of the front flange member, and an area for retention is small. Therefore, the separately formed front flange member and a member for fixing the separately formed front flange member are liable to deform by a tension force of the released fishing line, and the front flange member and the member for fixing the front flange member are plastically deformed. Hence, there is formed a gap between the front flange member and a distal end of the fishing line winding body portion, and consequently a fishing line is liable to jam, and there is generated a resistance for releasing a fishing line. In the worst case, a fishing line is damaged, which causes a problem of breakage of a fishing line.
In order to increase an area for retention, if the fishing line winding body portion is designed to have a greater thickness in the aforementioned structure of securing the separately formed front flange member, there is encountered a problem that a weight of a spool is increased.